Entries Now Open for Second Annual Environmental March Madness Tournament
America’s second Annual Environmental March Madness Tournament is now open for entries and will evaluate environmental academic programs and sustainability practices used by colleges and universities across the nation.
Enviance, Inc. has announced that the Call for Entries period has opened in the Second Annual Environmental March Madness tournament. GreenBiz Group and Qualtricshave partnered with Enviance to sponsor this year’s tournament, which will evaluate the academic programs and sustainability practices at dozens of universities around the country.
The deadline for schools interested in participating in the tournament to submit is January 14, 2013. Student essays, department videos and images, and other supporting information will be collected beginning February 4, after the Sustainable 16 are announced.
The 2013 tournament will feature a new, distinguished panel of judges featuring environmental experts from a variety of sectors, including retail, energy, non-profit, journalism and academia, along with Enviance president and CEO, Lawrence Goldenhersh. Together, the judges will not only evaluate the curriculum at the colleges and universities who enter, but also weigh the environmental practices on the campuses themselves, to see which schools “practice what they teach.”
“When we launched the Environmental March Madness tournament in early 2012, we never envisioned the amount of interest and competition it would spark among colleges and universities, large and small,” said Goldenhersh. “If last year’s tournament showed anything, it’s that you don’t have to be from the storied basketball conferences like the ACC or Big 10 to be considered a powerhouse, and even a small college in Maine—like Colby College, the 2012 National Champion—has a shot to cut down the nets come April. This year’s competition should be even more intense and wide open as new schools participate and we open the judging to actual environmental practices taking place on campus.”
The tournament judging will run in parallel to the 2013 NCAA college basketball tournament, culminating with the National Champion being announced on April 8, 2013. In addition to the National Champion title, Enviance will award the winning school’s environmental and sustainability department with a $5,000 prize. Enviance will also send the department chair or a member of the faculty on an all-expenses-paid trip to San Diego to attend the Enviance User Conference, April 22 to26, where the department leader will lead a panel on educating future environmental professionals.